Landlady spent the weekend up in the Gulch working on her Meadow House. We got together for coffee this morning, and she said she had some veggies for the ladies. There were some unidentifiable greens too tart to eat, and the seeds and remainders of a squash. So first visit this morning I dumped it all into the Big Chickenhouse.
The ladies have forgiven me – at last – for the door incident. So the first thing they remember when I come in is that I usually bring food. That doesn’t mean they trust me at all, of course. So when I dumped this pile of unidentified vegetable matter onto their bedding, thirteen hens gathered around in a semicircular formation but stayed just out of reach in case it attacked.
Then they just stood there and clucked and crooned at each other:
“What is it?”
“No clue. Probably dangerous, though.”
“What do you think it wants?”
“I don’t know. Peck it.”
“Sheeit, I’m not gonna peck it. You peck it.”
I left, having other things to do. Came back an hour later, and somebody had indeed worked up the nerve to peck it.
Private to Landlady: They don’t like the greens any more than you did. The squash and seeds were a big hit, though.
So funny!! LOL I can just see it. I once found a large mass of some sort of worm/insect as I was digging to plant in the garden. They were about an inch long, and had some sort of flinty, segmented hide.
I scooped them all up (as many as I could find) and tossed them into the chicken pen. The ladies circled the pile, intrigued by the wiggling I’m sure. One hen picked up a “worm” and carried it around for a few seconds before spitting it out. The rest of the girls were not interested, and I have no idea where the worms wound up. I never saw them again.
By contrast, the big green, stinky tomato worms were hand picked off the plants and dumped into the pen. They were gobbled up instantly, with loud calls for me to give them MORE!
Chickens is strange critters.
Chickens are omnivorous. They will eat anything that won’t eat them. Or die trying.